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Tracking how air moves at night near the Earth's surface could provide insights into how air pollution spreads and when it's best to apply pesticides.

Tracking how air moves at night near the Earth's surface could provide insights into how air pollution spreads and when it's best to apply pesticides.

This week, a team of University of South Carolina (USC) and University of Illinois (U of I) researchers will launch a project to do just that. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the two-month experiment -- called Stable Atmospheric Variability and Transport, or SAVANT -- will run from Sept. 15 to Nov. 15 in and near Mahomet, Illinois, and will measure air flow in what's known as a stable boundary layer.

Stable boundary layers form at night over land when the Earth is cooler. Despite their frequent occurrence, they're relatively difficult to understand and observe.

"Airflow near mountains, hills and valleys often has complicated patterns, even though the atmosphere appears quiet," says Chungu Lu, a program director in NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funds SAVANT. "Understanding these flow patterns is important for predicting air quality, enhancing crop yields and mitigating the impacts of hazardous materials releases, for example."

Because stable boundary layers are challenging to observe, they've previously been under-represented in atmospheric models.